These chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies are the perfect cookie with a soft and moist center, melty morsels of chocolate, and crisp edges. It’s the only chocolate chip cookie recipe you’ll ever need because it’s classic—not fussy, complicated, or time-consuming.
There’s no need for refrigeration, special tricks, or complex cooking techniques to get the best chocolate cookie. Our foolproof, classic recipe tastes exactly how it should—insanely delicious. After all, it’s the incredible flavor and easy-to-make recipe that keeps traditional desserts like Gingerbread Cookies, Banana Bread, and Baklava so popular for ages!
This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy.
Best Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe
My high school used to sell the best chocolate chip cookies at lunchtime. They were soft, thick and irresistible. With this cookie recipe, I sought to recreate that memorable texture and this recipe takes me back to the days when I saved up my quarters for the rare treat of the cafeteria cookie.
There is no match for homemade chocolate chip cookies with chewy and soft texture, gooey chocolate chips, and the sweetest aroma coming from your oven. As America’s most loved cookie, they are perfect for every occasion, whether you’re making Christmas cookies, comforting a neighbor, or surprising your kiddos with a sweet after-school treat.
Just like with Chocolate Crinkle Cookies or Christmas Sugar Cookies, everyone needs a go-to chocolate chip cookie recipe, so here’s why this one is a keeper:
- The cookies stay soft for days
- Easy, straightforward recipe with tips to make it foolproof!
- No resting/refrigerating time—so you can satisfy your craving immediately
- Pantry staple ingredients
- True to the classic flavor everyone loves
- Stores and freezes well
- Make ahead option to always have dough on hand
Chocolate Chip Cookies Video
In this video, Natasha shows you how easy it is to whip up a batch of homemade chocolate chip cookies. *Note that we updated the recipe and now use 1 tsp of baking soda because we loved the results even more.
Ingredients:
The best chocolate chip cookie recipe is made with pantry and refrigerator staples—nothing fancy or hard to find here.
- Unsalted butter – room temperature butter creates the best consistency to trap air for a chewy, airy dough with the best texture and rise.
- Granulated sugar – white sugar adds sweetness without adding moisture for the perfect spread
- Brown sugar – molasses keeps the cookie moist, soft, and chewy. Be sure to press the sugar tightly into the cup when measuring
- Eggs – room temperature eggs mix more evenly to bind the dough
- Vanilla extract – store-bought or homemade vanilla extract gives that classic chocolate chip cookie flavor
- All-purpose flour – be sure to measure correctly to get the right amount: fluff with a spoon and then scoop the flour into the measuring cup. Finally, scrape off the top. Be sure not to pat the flour down
- Baking soda – sift to eliminate clumps
- Salt – balances the sweetness of the sugars
- Chocolate chips – we prefer semi-sweet chocolate chips, but you can use milk chocolate or bittersweet chips for a slightly different taste. See our buying guide below – be sure to use the full amount because they add moisture and give good form to the cookies
Pro Tip:
If you don’t have time to let the butter come to room temperature, try this trick to soften the butter quickly, because it makes a big difference.
How to Buy Chocolate Chips
Chocolate chips come in different varieties. Here’s what to look for:
- Semi-sweet chocolate chips (46%-60% cocoa): the traditional chip for chocolate chip cookies. You can use full-size or mini chips, chunks, or even chopped chocolate. Nestle, Tollhouse, Ghirardelli, Guittard, Kirkland, Hershey’s….they all work!
- Milk chocolate chips (10% cocoa): these make very sweet cookies, so have your glass of milk ready. Try mixing with semi-sweet.
- Bittersweet chocolate chips (70% cocoa): less sweet and intensely chocolatey. These produce a more “adult” cookie.
Substitutions
It’s easy to make these cookies your own. You’ll need 2 cups of mix-ins, so if you’re feeling adventurous, try some of these fun alternatives to chocolate chips:
- Peanut butter chips
- Sprinkles
- Butterscotch chips
- M&M candies
- Macadamia nuts
- Chopped unsalted peanuts
- White vanilla baking chips
- Shredded coconut
- Pretzel pieces – the options are endless!
How to Make Chocolate Chip Cookies
It’s so simple to mix up this easy chocolate chip cookie recipe with pantry staples and no refrigeration is needed.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees and cover 3 cookie sheets with parchment paper or Silpat mats. Cream the butter and sugars together for 5 minutes until light and fluffy—this is the most important step to get a chewy cookie. Be sure to beat for the full amount of time!
- Beat eggs into the butter mixture one at a time followed by the vanilla extract.
- Combine the dry ingredients (flour, salt, and sifted baking soda) in a separate bowl, and then add the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients in thirds. Finally, fold the chocolate chips into the dough. Be sure not to over-mix (this can cause the dough to become tough).
- Roll balls of dough or use a trigger release scoop to scoop 3 Tbsp balls onto the prepared cookie sheets.
- Bake one cookie sheet at a time for 12-15 minutes. The tops should still look a bit wet and not browned. We usually bake 1/3 of the cookies at a time and refrigerate or freeze the rest for later, so see our tips below.
- Rest the cookies on the baking sheet for about 5 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack. Store cookies in an airtight container on the counter for 5 days. To warm the cookies, try toasting in a toaster oven or baking at 350 for 2-3 minutes.
Pro Tip:
For a prettier cookie, press a few extra chocolate chips into the top of each cookie dough ball just before baking.
Common Questions
Room temperature butter and eggs, beating the butter and sugars thoroughly, and not over-mixing create the best cookies! No need for fancy techniques, because the best chocolate chip cookies are easy to make!
These homemade chocolate chip cookies spread perfectly without flattening.
Over-baking is the #1 cause of hard cookies, so remove them before they brown, when the edges are just turning golden. The top should still look a bit raw.
Once baked, store the cookies in an airtight container to keep them soft. You can even place a piece of bread in the container to maintain moisture.
Usually, cookies go flat when a recipe doesn’t include enough flour. Be sure to measure the ingredients correctly. Also, check to be sure your baking soda is still fresh by placing 1 tsp baking soda into a cup with a splash of vinegar. It should fizz, but if it doesn’t, replace your baking soda.
This usually means you use too much flour. Be sure to fluff and spoon your flour into a dry ingredient measuring cup, and don’t pat it down. Also, be sure not to make the cookie dough balls too large, or they may take longer than the cooking time to spread in the oven.
Make-Ahead
Our homemade chocolate chip cookie dough is refrigerator and freezer-friendly, so you can always have dough on hand. To make a few days ahead, mix the dough as directed and store:
- To Refrigerate: put dough into an airtight container, or cover rolled dough balls on a cookie sheet in the refrigerator for up to 3 days, and then bake as usual. It may take 1-2 minutes longer if starting with chilled dough.
- To Freeze: Scoop the dough onto a parchment-lined cookie sheet and freeze for 1 hour. Then, once the dough balls are frozen, store them in a freezer zip-top bag until ready to bake.
- To Bake: thaw in the refrigerator and bake as directed. You can bake from frozen, but the cookies will take a few more minutes to bake.
You will love these homemade chocolate chips with melty chocolate, a chewy cookie center, and an irresistible aroma. Our easy recipe uses pantry staples without unnecessary techniques! Grab a glass of milk because this will soon become your go-to recipe!
More Cookie Recipes
If you love this chocolate chip cookie recipe, then you won’t want to miss these other delicious cookie recipes.
- Peanut Butter Cookies
- Snowball Cookies
- Russian Tea Cakes
- Shell Cookies
- Cranberry Cookies
- Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
- Thumbprint Cookies
Soft Chocolate Chip Cookies Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 cup unsalted butter, (16 Tbsp), softened
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1 cup light brown sugar, tightly packed
- 2 large eggs, room temperature
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 3 cups all-purpose flour, measured correctly*
- 1 tsp baking soda, sifted
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips, (12 oz), divided reserving 1/4 cup for the top
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350˚ F. Line a baking sheet with parchment or Silpat liner. In the bowl of a stand mixer with paddle attachment, combine 2 sticks of butter, 1 cup of packed brown sugar and 1/2 cup of white sugar. Beat 5 minutes on medium/high speed until creamy and light, scraping down the bowl as needed.
- Add 2 eggs, one at a time, beating well with each addition, scraping down the bowl as needed, then beat in 2 tsp of vanilla.
- In a separate bowl, combine 3 cups of flour, 1 tsp salt, and 1 tsp of baking soda (sifted to eliminate lumps). Add the flour mixture to the creamed butter in thirds, mixing to incorporate with each addition. Fold in 2 cups of chocolate chips.
- Use an ice cream scoop to get even balls of dough (3 Tbsp each). Place scoops of dough onto lined baking sheet about 2 inches apart. Mine fit onto 3 cookie sheets and made 26 cookies. Roll balls lightly with your hands then stud tops of cookie balls with reserved chocolate chips. Bake right away or cover and refrigerate until ready to bake.
- Bake one cookie sheet at a time for 12-15 min at 350˚F (we bake 12 minutes), until edges are just turning golden. The tops should still look under-baked. Allow cookies to cool on the baking sheet 5 min then transfer to a rack to cool.
Notes
Nutrition Per Serving
Filed Under
I always make them for my family even though I am a child 🙂
Hi Anisa. That’s wonderful. I’m glad your family is enjoying the recipe!
Scrumptious!
I’m allergic to eggs, would these still come out good by substituting with yogurt and how much yogurt?
Hi Tammy! I haven’t tested that to be able to advise.
Your ingredients say 1 stick of butter but instructions say 2 sticks of butter. Which is it please.
Hi Cindy! Can you specify where it says this? The ingredients list mentions 1 cup of butter which is 2 sticks total.
Wonderful Cookies ! Thanks for the great recipe ! Made them for a Pool Party …..
Hi there. The cookies turned out amazing! I froze some from the batch, however, when I baked them from frozen, they didn’t bake nicely. They were not a nice round shape, were too tall (did not spread out nicely) and also cracked on the edges. Please tell me if there are particular steps I need to take in order to bake from frozen successfully. Thank you.
HI Natasha, if freezing, would taking them out the day before serving or morning of, results in fresh taste?
Hi Mlna, you can bake them from frozen.
good
I’m so glad you enjoyed it!
All I have is salted butter. Can I use that?
Yes, but omit the salt or use less.
Thanks! Also, do I need to sift the flour?
It’s not necessary, but please watch my How to Measure Ingredients (Wet and Dry) VIDEO tutorial to ensure you’re measuring correctly.
Best chocolate chip cookies I have ever made. Didn’t have enough light brown sugar so had to substitute dark brown, still turned out perfect. My new go to recipe
Many thanks for the cc recipe. I prefer when you give weights rather than cup measurements. This helps us get an accurate measurement. Baking is such a science! Louisa
Hi Louisa, If you scroll down to our printable recipe card, most of our recipes have a metric conversion option on the printable recipe card. We are currently working on adding metric measurements to all of our recipes, but it is taking some time to add them one at a time. Thank you so much for being patient! In the meantime, check out our post on measuring which should help.
Hi Natasha, I love all your recipes! I made the soft Chocolate chip cookies, and they did not come out soft. What did I do wrong? The taste of the cookies is great just not soft.
Thank you ,
KP
Hi Kathleen. Did you make any changes? The most common reasons are over-baking or using too much flour. I have this How to Measure Ingredients (Wet and Dry) VIDEO tutorial here.
Soft cookies but the bite is little cakey which we weren’t to fond of…I doubled checked the recipe to make sure I didn’t miss anything and I didn’t. So I think this is how the cookies are supposed to taste.
Hi Zee, usually a cakey cookie is due to either using too much flour or too much leavening, or both. Check out my post on how to measure ingredients which should help.
Loved this receipe. BTW, I do not have a mixer, so I used a whisk and good strong arm to whip the butter and sugar together. Everything worked out well. I’m still saving for my Mix Master 🙂
I’m so glad it still worked out well with a whisk, Louisa! Thank you so much for sharing that with me.
I just made this recipe and while the taste if fairly good, they’re quite cakey. I measured the flour correctly using the instructions but they seem to be extremely floury. Depending on your preferences you might enjoy them but I prefer a soft cookie with a crispy edge. I may make them again using a bit less flour next time and see how that goes!
Hi Holli, what method are you using to measure flour? It sounds like too much flour based on your description. Also, what kind of flour are you using and is everything else the same (no reduction in butter or liquid ingredients)?
I made these for the first time today for a birthday get together. They are amazing! I can’t believe how easy and delicious they are. This is my go to chocolate chip cookie recipe from now on 😀
That’s so great! It sounds like you have a new favorite, Karin!
I made 10 dozen of these cookies for a wedding and they were a hit! My go to recipe from now on for sure.
Wow! That’s amazing! These are perfect for a wedding, Mayuri!
Your printed recipe & your video are different. Video says 2 teaspoon of baking soda & 1/2 teaspoon of salt. Printed says 1 teaspoon of salt & 1 teaspoon of baking soda. Im confused.
Hi Debbie. See my note above in the blog post. We updated the recipe because we had better results, the written version is the most up to date. Hopefully we can re-film it someday too.
Hi Natasha, in the video you say to use 2 teaspoons of baking *powder*, but the printed version says 1 teaspoon of baking *soda*. Which is correct?
Hi Catherine, the printed recipe is the updated and improved version of the recipe. I wish it was easier to go back and edit in a video but alas that’s not an option once it’s published.
What is the best way to store them? How long will they last in the fridge? Do I wrap each one in plastic then foil? Airthght container also? Can you freeze them after baking? Help! Greetings from Guatemala. Huge fan here!
Hi Ana! To store baked cookies, let them cool completely and store them in an air tight container at room temperature for 4-5days. For longer storage, you can freeze them a sealed freezer-safe bag or container for up to three months.
I made these for a family party and people were raving about them saying they were the best cookies they’ve ever had! I didn’t even get to try one but they received at least 25 five star reviews from the guests at the event! I’ve already been asked to share the recipe & I can’t wait to make these again- thank you!
Cookies were great. My grandkids especially loved them.
Question is in the written recipe it says baking soda and video you say baking powder so which is correct?
Thank you
Hi Cindy, We first published this chocolate chip cookie recipe in 2012. We are always working on perfecting our recipes so we modified the recipe with a tad more salt and switched to 1 tsp baking soda. This resulted in a softer, chewier cookie that spread perfectly with or without chilling the dough.
Delicious! I have never tried a recipe that turned out this good without refrigeration. I only had half a cup of butter, so I subbed the over half cup with 1/4 cup of olive oil. They turned out fantastic!